About all I can tell you is what you already know, that it is pre-WWII, probably made in 1939 or 1940. (The German invasion of Belgium was in May, 1940; one source says the Germans started serial numbering the HPs at 50,001, so there was probably some gap to prevent overlap.) Barring any military markings, you can probably assume that it was a civilian pistol.

Actually, I didn't know that. So that's progress

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The sight replacement, if it can't be reversed, ruins the collector value of the gun.

I bought it cheaply enough that it doesn't matter. But your suspicion is correct... It can't be easily reversed. In fact it had some odd gunsmithing done on it to make it -- intentionally or unintentionally, I don't know -- full auto.

My gunsmith fixed that, but it definitely had some trigger work to improve, somewhat, the traditional BHP grittiness.